Shake off some of those post-holiday blahs on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 8, at 3 p.m. when the Uptown Big Band performs in the Camp Verde High School Performing Arts Center, 210 Camp Lincoln Road in Camp Verde.

Uptown Big Band is the real thing in an updated package – a 13-piece vintage jazz orchestra playing old Hollywood music – tunes from the stage and screen, standards from the WWII Era, swing music from around the world, and contemporary favorites. 

The band performance is influenced by Natalie Cole, Linda Ronstadt, Michael Bublé, Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Connick, Jr., Frank Sinatra, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington. You will hear songs like ‘Sing Sing Sing,’ ‘It’s Only a Paper Moon,’ ‘All of Me,’ ‘Fly Me to the Moon,’ ‘Straighten Up and Fly Right,’ ‘Route 66’ and ‘My Funny Valentine’ and other familiar favorites.

Saxes, trumpets, trombones, bass, keys, guitar, drums, male and female vocalists, and professional swing dancers all form the troupe that comes together and lights up the stage with rhythm, pizzazz, observations, humor, and a surprise or two.  

Uptown Big Band engages audiences all over the Grand Canyon State from Tucson to Flagstaff and places in-between. Come prepared to tap your toes and put on your dancing shoes to enjoy Big Band sounds, vocal highlights and swing dancing that is sure to amaze! This will be a show that all ages are sure to enjoy. 

Tickets to the performance will be sold at the door the night of the performance for $20, with free admission to students, and PECPAF member discounts will apply. Doors to the Center will open at 2:15 p.m.

But that’s not all… Mark your calendars for the Feb. 5 PECPAF presentation featuring Dr. Maurice Crandall, associate professor of History at Arizona State University and an enrolled member of the Yavapai-Apache Nation. His presentation, titled ‘After the Whirlwind: Yavapai-Apache Scouts and the World They Made,’ will tell about the complicated history surrounding the Yavapai and Apache as U. S. Army Indian Scouts during the 1870s and how the experiences and work of Indian Scout veterans helped to establish reservation communities in the Verde Valley, Prescott, Payson, and Fort McDowell.